00:00Last year when you signed a new deal last season, you said part of the reason was because you didn't want to leave the team or the club sort of in transition.
00:07Yeah, so you didn't feel like it was the right time.
00:09You kind of rebuilt the team. I'm not saying it's perfect, but you have brought in a lot of new players.
00:15Given that you have rebuilt the team, does that make you more likely to leave the club or would it actually invigorate you?
00:23Because the hardest thing in football, Sir Alex Ferguson did it two or three times, you've done it at least twice,
00:27is to rebuild the team and then give you an energy. Is that maybe something that could refresh you and think,
00:32oh, you know, I could maybe go on even longer here?
00:35I didn't know it. I said it many times to you. I want to be the best in everything and I have all the records.
00:44I want to, that's why I said last game, I want to spend more money to be the first one to spend money.
00:48Is Alex Ferguson revealed three times? I want to reveal three times.
00:52Do you feel refreshed or just generally? Does it refresh you?
00:55You know, sort of new players coming in the team, sort of rebuilding. Is that sort of a new challenge?
01:01Yeah, of course.
01:03I would like, what I said before, that the process to rebuild is quicker when everybody's fit.
01:08We have this amount of injuries that in moments, the last month we have seven, eight.
01:12In Norway, 11, absence.
01:14It always is more difficult to reduce this time to understand all of these things.
01:18But in football, there are no time. Come here and say, oh, God, please, please give me time.
01:23The fans, the owners, the Germans said, time? Win games, my friend. Win games and forget about it. The rest, that is what I'm about.
01:31Hi, Pep. So, I mean, Mark, he had a medical at Liverpool in the summer.
01:40With Antoine, he, Richard Hughes, knows him very well.
01:45How important, when these players come available, how important are you to speaking to these players
01:50and kind of telling them that City is where they should be?
01:56Well, I can tell all the big things I believe the club has, but they have to feel it.
02:07Always I tell you, when I speak with the players of the club, I speak with the players,
02:11I'll tell them, sleep with your pillow as much nights.
02:16You have to be convinced, don't come here if you don't feel it.
02:18And I think also from outside, they see where is the club, the way they play, I would say,
02:23in terms of as a team.
02:24And after the club, always I can tell what I truly, truly believe.
02:27I never say something that I believe the club is not.
02:30I say, we have very good things and there are other ones and maybe it could be better.
02:35But as a team, like, for our perspective, the half, the chairmen and the owners,
02:39is always go forward and go better and always, you know, still there,
02:44still up there as long as possible for years and decades.
02:49And, yeah, try to convince them, like all the managers of the club wanted to the players.
02:52So at the end, the final decision belonged to the players.
02:55So I said, decide yourself, you know, not your agent, not your mom and dad.
02:59If you want to join us, you want to play with us, and that's all.
03:04And do you think that that's something that City is very, very good at,
03:08is seeing these opportunities when they arise?
03:10Because obviously, Mark, it could have been somewhere else and then becomes available in January.
03:17Well, we had a lot of problems, the problems, you know, for John and Nathan.
03:23And sometimes, yeah, you are not ready.
03:26And when they have an incredible problem with Josco and Ruben for Long Ingers,
03:33I said, oh, wow, we are in real trouble for the most part of the season.
03:39And we had that opportunity.
03:41And, yeah, and Mark, at the end, we were, as I said, grateful to Mark, decided to join us.
03:46Mark, at the end, could stay in Crystal Palace.
03:48At the end, the season, a free agent, go wherever he wants.
03:51But, I mean, I think Mark and Hugo, Ferran, the rest of the people,
03:57make an incredible job, you know, to convince him to come.
04:03Hi, Pep.
04:03Just on Pep Linders, last summer when you were looking to add to your backroom staff,
04:09what was it that made you think of and then decide on him?
04:14Well, his experience had a lot of info about other people, about him.
04:19I was being trained and managed with him in Liverpool.
04:24And I need to refresh myself first with new people.
04:30I have incredible knowledge about the game, about the Premier League.
04:32And I love a lot, many things I like when they do it with Jürgen in Liverpool.
04:36And, yeah, we talked one day.
04:38I think we felt connected immediately.
04:42And incredible lucky.
04:44Since the day one, I started my career as a manager,
04:47all the staff, backroom, you know, close people with us, with me.
04:54And Pep is one of them.
04:56What other things that he has helped the team with this season?
05:00And you mentioned it being such a young and inexperienced squad.
05:03Pathology training sessions and vision of the part of the game
05:06and the freedom to say, I should do this, we should do that.
05:11And continually talking about what could be better in that way
05:15with the player, with the other one,
05:16if you play in that system or the other one.
05:18Yeah, that is the funny part of our game.
05:21You know, imagine what can we do, what is going to happen
05:24and confront you with opinions for the people that you truly believe
05:28they are incredible, well, well prepared for that business.
05:30And can he be any particular help for Liverpool,
05:34for you at Liverpool this weekend?
05:38Well, of course, but, you know, it would be easy
05:41if it was Jürgen, you know, the manager there,
05:44because I've been with them and I have not been with him.
05:47But, of course, they play a little bit differently
05:49than they play in the period for Jürgen and him there.
05:51But at the end, it remains the quality, come on.
05:55They are a top team, you know.
05:57They have done many, many things in this summer.
05:59Yeah, and that's why he's a, yeah, good team.
06:07Hi, Pep.
06:08When you were winning your sort of early Premier League titles
06:11before COVID, we sort of discussed the defensive stability
06:16of the team, that you'd win the titles,
06:18but in big games sometimes sort of the spine of the team
06:21wouldn't be that stable.
06:23And you sort of corrected that in the years after,
06:26went on to win the treble.
06:29Now with the rebuild and the team,
06:32how close or how well do you think they're doing
06:34in a sort of stability point of view
06:37and are able to sort of deal with these big games
06:40and when things go against them in games?
06:46I think we are not far.
06:49At the same time, with the absence,
06:52you know, in the good period of this season
06:55where we won seven, eight or nine games,
06:57the back four was the same all the time
06:58with Mateo, Ruben, Josco and Nico.
07:02And after with the Ingers, of course,
07:04you had to rotate on the same,
07:05but Kusanov have been outstanding
07:07and Mark since arrived
07:09and now Ryan Nuri in the last games as well.
07:11So sometimes back four is what they give you
07:14more consistency to the team
07:15when you have more stability in that.
07:18But I think we are not far away,
07:21but not just the back four,
07:22but many things have changed in our way we defend.
07:26And in a part of what I said with James,
07:28it's a process like it's nice to leave it,
07:31you know, there's building time.
07:32Sometimes it's refreshing with your mind
07:33how we can do in a place,
07:35how you help him do that.
07:36But unfortunately, we don't have much time.
07:38You know, you have to do it immediately, quick.
07:40And sometimes you need a little bit more time.
07:43And do you think that comes with,
07:45I'm just trying to think back to the treble
07:48where it was like, yeah, there were new players
07:50like Akanji that came in for that year
07:52and things like that.
07:53So it wasn't the same team,
07:54but do you think that the core of the team,
07:57everybody knew who was playing
07:59and they'd had a lot of time together?
08:00No, we still don't have that.
08:01And that's what you're trying to build now?
08:03Yeah, still we don't have that, yeah.
08:05But everybody knows it's going to happen.
08:06I remember the year of the treble
08:08in the last two, three months,
08:09we were starting eleven all the time.
08:11And Julian came in,
08:12and Riyad,
08:14and, you know,
08:15all the central defenders,
08:16but everybody knows already
08:17with Gundo, with Rodri,
08:19with Kevin,
08:20with Bernard on the side,
08:21you know,
08:21they have a,
08:22but that is a process.
08:24It didn't come for the years of treble,
08:25a quadruple in immediately one day.
08:27So it's years,
08:28years,
08:28years to do that.
08:29And now we change a lot.
08:31That's why sometimes I said,
08:33okay,
08:33we can be better,
08:34yeah.
08:34I just had the feeling right now
08:35that for nothing,
08:36we'll not be closer in the family,
08:37for nothing.
08:38It belonged to us,
08:38huh?
08:39Don't misunderstand me,
08:40even the people,
08:42maybe I can be a little bit uncomfortable
08:44with the referees' statements,
08:47and it belongs absolutely to us
08:49because when we miss the chances
08:50and we make it that,
08:51it's ourself,
08:52you know?
08:53And it could be there,
08:55but in the same time,
08:56I said,
08:57wow,
08:58maybe we could not expect
08:59with the problems of having injuries
09:00with the revealed
09:00a lot of players
09:01in the last transfer window
09:03in the winter time
09:04and this summer
09:05with no freshmen,
09:06we didn't have time to training,
09:08to reveal many things
09:09in that time training
09:10where the World Cup finish,
09:12holidays in one or two weeks,
09:13start the league,
09:14walls and many things
09:16still was not real connected.
09:18So,
09:19I don't know what's going to happen
09:21in the next weeks
09:22and the next month,
09:23but,
09:24so maybe it could be worse.
09:26You're right.
09:27So,
09:27that's why I try to be
09:29the positive way of the things
09:30and go.
09:31Last one with Richard.
09:33Hi Pep.
09:34Just about Mark Gweihi,
09:35you talked about the situation
09:37in January
09:37that led you to sign him,
09:39but he's obviously a player
09:40you'd liked for a number of years.
09:42so when at the end
09:43of the summer window
09:44he's having that medical
09:46with Liverpool,
09:47are you just resigning yourself
09:49and expecting him
09:50to join there
09:50or are you,
09:51I mean,
09:52was there any attempt
09:52by you to get him
09:53on that last day then?
09:55No,
09:55because in that moment
09:56we'll have a six,
09:57seven central defenders
09:58for no reason
09:59that it was a little bit
10:00out of control,
10:01Manu could not stay with us
10:02and leave to enter the Milan
10:05because the financial
10:07free play is there
10:08and you have to,
10:09you know,
10:10to the numbers
10:10and by the moment
10:12we'll have enough
10:13but after the situation
10:14happened,
10:15you know,
10:15in just from,
10:16from especially John
10:17and Nathan
10:18and after the big injuries
10:19from,
10:20from,
10:20from Josco right now
10:23and that's why
10:23like happened with Manu
10:25when we went to Dortmund
10:26was an opportunity
10:27with 15 million pounds,
10:29you know,
10:29and look,
10:29the result was unbelievable.
10:31Manu was a player
10:32for the final Champions League,
10:34player for the travel quadruple
10:35and was an incredible player.
10:37He played in the middle,
10:38even played holding midfielder
10:39with Rodri many times,
10:41played in the right back
10:41but that is not the right
10:43for Dortmund
10:43and come here now
10:44but you play holding midfielder
10:45and now you play
10:46central defender
10:47back through in the right back
10:48when Kyle was not there.
10:50So I need time
10:50and I know,
10:52I don't,
10:52I don't ask time.
10:53All the managers
10:54is a big mistake
10:54if we ask that
10:55and you don't have to
10:56know you're the fans
10:58and everyone.
10:59But the reality is here
11:00so that's why
11:01we need a little bit there
11:02and being with there
11:03it's a little bit
11:04the feeling,
11:05ah,
11:05it's a pity
11:06just for nothing,
11:07just not exception
11:08and much,
11:09much better.
11:10You know,
11:11when you miss
11:11in a thousand games lately
11:13in a six-yard box
11:15in penalty spots
11:16again with the keeper
11:17once against one
11:18like this
11:18and we miss it,
11:19they say,
11:20wow,
11:20we'll have a little bit
11:21more points
11:22to be closer
11:22but the margins
11:24in the Premier League
11:25in the highest standards
11:26and the high levels
11:26in that
11:28in Bernabeu we won
11:30we played much,
11:31much worse
11:31in many,
11:32many games
11:32we played wrestling
11:33in the Premier League
11:33it was much better
11:34and there we won
11:36and here we draw
11:38by just losing
11:39in Old Trafford
11:40so sometimes
11:41it's like that
11:43I have to accept it.
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